OTTAWA - Federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for emergency preparedness are working to launch a new national flood insurance program to protect homeowners in high-risk flood zones.
A task force made up of provincial and territorial leaders and representatives from the Insurance Bureau of Canada is expected to release a final report on the program later this spring after two years of work.
On Monday, federal Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair finished a tour of B.C. communities that experienced devastating floods last November, including Abbotsford and Merritt, where some people still have not been able to move home.
Blair said with the frequency and the cleanup costs of natural disasters rising due to climate change, communities will also need to make difficult decisions about where to rebuild in the future.
Those decisions will be guided by a new portal the government is creating to allow people to see detailed, updated flood mapping of the entire country.
The federal government set aside $5 billion this fiscal year for its share of costs under the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements to help B.C.’s flood recovery.
